1,212 research outputs found
How do neighboring peer companies influence SMEs’ financial behavior?
Recent research into corporate finances has found that the financial decisions of peer companies are related. Companies tend to “kept an eye” on the decisions of other peer companies, among other things, trying to overcome the limitations caused by the lack of information. This paper further examines these interactions including geographical proximity among companies. With this aim, we use a heterogeneous Partial Adjustment Model on a sample of 12, 444 small and medium Spanish manufacturing industrial companies. We find strong nonlinearities in the adjustment processes of liquidity, indebtedness and profitability ratios associated with basic characteristics of the companies such as size, technology, age or financial imbalances. Our results indicate that the influence of the environment on the financial behavior of each company, and its responsiveness, vary in function of neighbor firms’ characteristics
V-Shape Liquid Crystal-Based Retromodulator Air to Ground Optical Communications
This paper describes the use of a 2D liquid crystal retro-modulator as a free space, wireless, optical link. The retro-modulator is made up of a retro-reflecting cornercube onto which 2 cascaded V-shape smectics liquid crystal modulators are mounted. The communication link differs with respect to more conventional optical links in not using amplitude (nor frequency) modulation, but instead state-of-polarisation (SOP) modulation known as Polarisation Shift Keying (PolSK). PolSK has the advantage over amplitude modulation, that it is less sensitive to changes in the visibility of the atmosphere, and increases inherently the bandwidth of the link. The implementation of PolSK both in liquid crystal based and in retro-modulated communication are novelties
Zircon to monazite phase transition in CeVO4
X-ray diffraction and Raman-scattering measurements on cerium vanadate have
been performed up to 12 and 16 GPa, respectively. Experiments reveal that at
5.3 GPa the onset of a pressure-induced irreversible phase transition from the
zircon to the monazite structure. Beyond this pressure, diffraction peaks and
Raman-active modes of the monazite phase are measured. The zircon to monazite
transition in CeVO4 is distinctive among the other rare-earth orthovanadates.
We also observed softening of external translational Eg and internal B2g
bending modes. We attributed it to mechanical instabilities of zircon phase
against the pressure-induced distortion. We additionally report
lattice-dynamical and total-energy calculations which are in agreement with the
experimental results. Finally, the effect of non-hydrostatic stresses on the
structural sequence is studied and the equations of state of different phases
are reported.Comment: 45 pages, 8 figures, 8 table
Site Layout of the proposed new Hadrons' Injector Chain at CERN
The replacement of almost all the LHC injector complex on the Meyrin-site of CERN (Linac2, PSB and PS) is planned within the next 10 years. The layout foreseen for the new accelerators is described in this paper, together with its compatibility with the existing experimental physics facilities. These machines can, after upgrade, supply with high beam power future physics facilities for radioactive ions and/or neutrinos. Their possible layout is also sketched in this document
Measurement of radon-induced backgrounds in the NEXT double beta decay experiment
The measurement of the internal Rn activity in the NEXT-White
detector during the so-called Run-II period with Xe-depleted xenon is
discussed in detail, together with its implications for double beta decay
searches in NEXT. The activity is measured through the alpha production rate
induced in the fiducial volume by Rn and its alpha-emitting progeny.
The specific activity is measured to be ~mBq/m. Radon-induced electrons have also been
characterized from the decay of the Bi daughter ions plating out on the
cathode of the time projection chamber. From our studies, we conclude that
radon-induced backgrounds are sufficiently low to enable a successful NEXT-100
physics program, as the projected rate contribution should not exceed
0.1~counts/yr in the neutrinoless double beta decay sample.Comment: 28 pages, 10 figures, 6 tables. Version accepted for publication in
JHE
Analysis of a spatial Lotka-Volterra model with a finite range predator-prey interaction
We perform an analysis of a recent spatial version of the classical
Lotka-Volterra model, where a finite scale controls individuals' interaction.
We study the behavior of the predator-prey dynamics in physical spaces higher
than one, showing how spatial patterns can emerge for some values of the
interaction range and of the diffusion parameter.Comment: 7 pages, 7 figure
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